Do NOT Believe Everything!!

Do NOT Believe Everything!!

By Mufti Menk

Opening Khutbah

All praise is due to Allah, Lord of the worlds, and the good end is for the righteous, and there is no transgression except against the wrongdoers. I bear witness that there is no deity worthy of worship except Allah alone, with no partner, and I bear witness that Muhammad is His servant and messenger. May Allah's peace and blessings be upon him and upon his family and all his companions.

My brothers and sisters, the consciousness of Allah is by far the most important piece of advice that one could give us to develop the correct relationship with Allah, to be conscious of Allah and to ask Allah to grant us steadfastness and guidance. That is by far the most important supplication and this is why in surah al-fatiha, we say:

"Guide us to the straight path" Quran 1:6

And this surah is repeated so many times a day in our prayer and even outside the prayer.

The Importance of Verification

My brothers and sisters, I would like to speak about a very important topic. We should not be believing everything we hear or see. We need to verify information before we believe it.

Many people are losing the path because they believe everything they hear and everything they see. There was a time when seeing was considered believing to a certain extent. That extent has dropped to a very low level with the technological advancement where people can actually edit, people can fake, people can create things out of nothing and accuse others of something that they are not guilty of.

And as a result, we lose our hereafter because we fall in the bandwagon of accusing people of something that they have not done or are not guilty of, yet we engaged in their lives when it was none of our business and we didn't need to engage in it in a negative way. So:

"O you who believe, be conscious of Allah and be with those who are as-sadiqeen, be with the truthful." Quran 9:119

Obviously, this is referring to your company and even yourselves and myself developing the quality of as- sidq and truthfulness, integrity. And we must remember that when people are truthful, they make sure

that what they utter is the truth.

(Sahih Muslim Hadith 5)

"It is sufficient for a person to be considered a liar if that person relates everything they hear because part of what they hear would be lies." Sahih Muslim Hadith 5

The Prophet says, it is sufficient for a person to be considered a liar if that person relates everything they hear because part of what they hear would be lies. That narration is telling us to verify information thoroughly before we believe it or narrate it. May Allah protect us.

The Danger of Spreading Unverified Information

If we are to narrate something that we are not sure of its authenticity, we would be guilty of spreading gossip, slander and that which is even worse. So, it's something my brothers and sisters, we need to be reminded of. In this day and age, it's easy for us to see something, to see a little clip, a forwarded message, a little video, a little audio, whatever it may be.

And that could be doctored, it could be wrong, it could be taken totally out of context. And here you are, here I am, forwarding it to others and making it seem that this is the guilt that the brother or the sister is accused of and it's accurate. But unfortunately, it's just an accusation, number one.

And number two is that it would be against us to actually do that. It would be false perhaps, it would be fabricated. When there is a possibility and a probability of something being true or false, consider it false and move on.

It will save you. And this is why the Prophet has reminded us that when it comes to halal and haram, they are both clear. But there are some things that you may not know.

They might not be so clear to a lot of people. So in that instance, the Prophet says:

"Whoever stays away from doubtful things that could be halal, could be haram, whoever stays away from those type of things has protected himself or herself, her dignity, her integrity, her deen and so much more." Sahih al-Bukhari Hadith 52

Why? Because imagine if there is a piece of meat in front of you, some people are saying this is halal and some people are saying this is haram.

Is it compulsory for you to eat that piece of meat? No. So if you were to eat it, you were ready to take the risk and it could have been haram. It may be.

But if you stayed away from it, nobody can tell you that what you did was wrong and no one can ever say that you consumed something haram. So you saved yourself. The same rule applies when it comes to eating the flesh of your brothers and sisters in terms of backbiting.

The Consequences of False Accusations

Don't do it. It's not worth it. In fact when it comes to slander or false accusation, remember, if there is something you've heard and it could be true, it could be false.

If you consider it true, you have a problem because you don't have enough evidence to consider it completely true. You need to continue to verify until there is 100% satisfactory evidence from a shariah perspective, from a godly perspective that this is actually the case. Then you may relate it if needed, if necessary.

Otherwise be careful. You would fall into such a trap and when you fall into a trap, you give your good deeds away to that person or those people by having spread something about them that was not even true and even if it were true and it was bad and it was unnecessary, then that would be backbiting. So it's either backbiting if it were true or slander.

In either case, you have given your good deeds to that person and there comes a time when if you run out of good deeds, you will take their bad deeds. Why should we do this? And this is why it's important to remind myself and yourselves to say, don't believe everything you hear or everything you see. Remember to authenticate it and only spread it if it is absolutely authentic and absolutely necessary for you to spread it.

Remember that. So in this day and age of technology, it's quite easy to earn reward. If you were to forward a good message and it were to go viral and millions of people or just thousands of people were to see it, it is far greater than what happened a few years back when we couldn't do this.

But in the same way that a good deed is multiplied millions of times when it's spread on the net, the evil is also multiplied millions of times as it begins to spread and if we were the source, we're doomed unless we seek the forgiveness of Allah.

So remember that. My brothers and sisters, it's not worth believing things that are doubtful. It's not worth believing things that we have not authenticated. So many people fabricate stuff. So many people accuse others falsely.

Modern Deception and Fraud

Be careful. In fact so much so, when people communicate with you, it may not even be that particular person. There have been so many instances where people have created fake accounts in order to communicate with others to make them think for a moment that they're talking to someone important or they're talking to the particular person when they're not.

And how could we fall for it? So many people entrap us by telling us, I have a treasure that is hidden under the ground that my great-grandfather who was a veteran of the Second World War has left and it's a hundred meters down in order to get there. I need $20,000 and what is left there is $200 million. I will give you a share of it.

I need that $2,000 and we end up sending them a portion of that money or that entire money and they've just created a tale. Don't believe those stories. Not at all.

So this is why we say, and I'm saying this for the tenth time, let's not believe everything that we see or hear because we will regret it. Similarly, when people come about and want you to become a vehicle of spreading rumor about someone else, be careful because you're wasting your time. You're using your time in something that is destructive.

Rather use it in that which is constructive, the Dhikr of Allah, the remembrance of Allah, the Quran, the Hadith, the Salah, whatever else it may be. That would actually help you much more. In fact, that would be beneficial.

On the other hand, there is detriment, there is loss. You used your time, you wasted your energy hurting people. A day will come when you regret what you've said and then it may be too late.

When you regret what you've said, it may be too late. The person might have passed away or it may have gone beyond your imagination across the globe to people who don't even know you or the person being spoken about. And then what's going to happen? How are you going to undo what you've done? My brothers and sisters, let's be conscious of Allah.

Practical Advice

Let's learn to respect each other. If you hear something good, it's better to believe it than not to believe it. And if you hear something bad, it's better not to believe it than to believe it.

So this is a general piece of advice that I decided to deliver today being a Friday. We ask Allah to make us more conscious of verification of what we hear or what we see. And when I say verification, it must be that which is acceptable in the eyes of Allah.

You know, an accusation, the word accusation, the accusation remains an accusation until it is proven. Remember that. Did you hear what I just said? The accusation is an accusation.

What is an accusation? It's not necessarily true. It needs to be verified. It's just an accusation.

We are taught not to spread accusations. To verify them first, make sure that it is true completely. But accusations are made in today's world, left, right and center.

Anyone can be accused of absolutely anything. It does not make them guilty. You need to verify thoroughly.

People could be accusing for many reasons. Sometimes they just don't like someone's face or they want their money or they have an agenda. So they accuse them of things that they're not guilty of.

And if that's the case, and you're going to spread such accusations, you might spread it in a way that people who hear it would believe it. And it's no longer an accusation. But it's now something that's false that is spreading.

May Allah protect us. We do not want to lose a hereafter. The biggest winners are those whom false accusation is spread about.

They're sitting at home and earning rewards of other people. But sometimes it's difficult. Not everyone can manage. Not everyone can actually go through that. Not everyone would be able to survive false accusation. Some people go as far as committing suicide.

May Allah forgive them. Haram, not allowed. But we need to know, let's make people's lives easier.

The Prophetic Guidance

Let's try and treat people the way we want to be treated. I've seen a lot of people, a lot of people, even sometimes those who are practicing, who really don't care what they say. They don't care who they're talking about and what exactly they're saying.

Is it that we don't have fear of the hereafter anymore? Is it that we don't believe in the Day of Judgment anymore in the proper way? We say we do, but do we? If we really believed in the last day and in the day of reckoning and accounting, we would either say that which is beneficial or remain silent. Listen to what the Prophet says:

(Sahih al-Bukhari Hadith 6018)

"Whoever truly believes in Allah and the last day, meaning the day of reckoning, such a person should only say that which is good, beneficial or keep quiet." Sahih al-Bukhari Hadith 6018

So that is the advice that I've given based on what Allah and His Rasul have taught us.

Conclusion

I pray that Allah grant us the ability to distinguish between right and wrong and we should never ever spread that which is false. Don't even believe things that you see. In fact, one point that's come to my mind, even the news that we hear, a lot of it is actually fabricated or serves an agenda, especially when it's coming from sources that are unknown.

And it sounds very weird sometimes. Remember, a lot of these news feeds that are sprouting about nowadays are not necessarily true. Some of them, they just want to make money or whatever other agenda they have.

We then promote them by promoting what they're saying. Be careful what you promote. I'm not saying don't spread some news, but make sure it is authentic and make sure it is necessary or beneficial for you to forward it.

Then you forward it and you spread it to others. Otherwise, stay out of it. May Allah protect us all.

I should be concerned about my hereafter and you should be concerned about your hereafter. So be very respectful. Talk to people in a polite way.

Don't accuse others and don't spread that which is false. Make sure that you know what you're doing because there will come a day when you may regret. May Allah protect us all.